Jefferson Parish President John Young has
given up on his nominee for compliance and
ethics officer after months of stonewalling by the Parish Council.

The council declined to place the nomination of Assistant
Parish Attorney Andrew Maestri on its agenda for three consecutive meetings,
most recently on Dec. 11. The administration announced on Monday (Jan. 6) that it is
appointing Maestri to a chief administrative assistant post instead. In his new
position, Maestri will oversee the library, personnel and human resource
management departments, as well as the Community Justice Agency and Electronic
Information Services. The appointment does not require approval by the Parish Council.

Chief Administrative Officer Chris Cox said in a statement
that Maestri's appointment to the administrative position results from
"various personnel adjustments" related to Cox's departure, which he announced last week. Cox is
leaving Jan. 17 to take a position with the Jefferson Parish District
Attorney's Office. He will be replaced by Jennifer Van Vrancken Dwyer,
currently serving as Cox's deputy.

Replacing Maestri as the administration's ethics officer
nominee is Christine Thomas, who now serves as a senior assistant parish
attorney. It's not yet clear if the council will vote on her nomination at its Jan. 15 meeting.

The Parish Council created the ethics officer position in March
2010 after corruption scandals in former Parish President Aaron Broussard's
administration. The post has been vacant since August, when Kim Chatelain took a job in
the nascent parish inspector general's office.

The council's refusal to consider Maestri's nomination coincided with an
effort by Councilman Mark Spears to tighten the ethics position's requirements, which
are listed differently in the parish ordinance creating the position and the
job description on file with human resources.

The ordinance is less restrictive than the job
description, and Spears wants to amend the
ordinance to match the job description. The council is expected to vote on the
measure next month. Spears has also proposed eliminating the position, a move the administration opposes.

Maestri's credentials match the current ordinance, which requires five years practicing law or certification as an ethics
and compliance officer. But he does not meet the stricter guidelines in the job
description, which calls for experience in compliance and ethics law, previous
management responsibility and an undergraduate degree in the field.

Cox reiterated the
administration's position that the job description should match the existing
ordinance, not vice versa, since the job description was "not drafted or
adopted by the Governmental and Ethics Compliance and Audit Committee."
Cox added that Thomas "meets many, but not all of the proposed additional
job requirements."

Thomas, like Maestri,
also earned her law degree from Loyola, in 1998, and began her career as a law
clerk with the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana, where she helped prosecute
judicial misconduct cases, according to her resume. Prior to joining parish
government one year ago, Thomas worked for more than five years as an assistant
attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice in St. Thomas, Virgin
Islands, where she charged and prosecuted felonies such as identity theft,
embezzlement and public corruption crimes.

Note: This post has been updated to include comments from Chief Administrative Officer Chris Cox